Strengths

Scores | Charts | Descriptions

Consistency™

People especially talented in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone in the world with consistency by setting up clear rules and adhering to them.

Score Distribution

Shows scores for this strength across all staff.

Users with Consistency strength

Theme Description

Balance is important to you. You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life, so you do not want to see the scales tipped too far in any one person's favor. In your view this leads to selfishness and individualism. It leads to a world where some people gain an unfair advantage because of their connections or their background or their greasing of the wheels. This is truly offensive to you. You see yourself as a guardian against it. In direct contrast to this world of special favors, you believe that people function best in a consistent environment where the rules are clear and are applied to everyone equally. This is an environment where people know what is expected. It is predictable and evenhanded. It is fair. Here each person has an even chance to show his or her worth.

Action Items

• Make a list of the rules of consistency by which you can live. These rules might be based upon certain values that you have, or upon certain policies that you consider "non-negotiables" within your organization. Counterintuitively, the more clear you are about these rules, the more comfortable you will be with individuality within these boundaries.
• Seek roles in which you can be a force for leveling the playing field. At work, or in your community, you can be a leader in helping provide disadvantaged people with the platform they need to show their true potential.
• Cultivate a reputation for pinpointing those who really deserve the credit. Ensure that respect is always given to those who truly performed the work. You can become known as the conscience of your organization.
• Find a role in which you can enforce compliance to a set of standards. Always be ready to challenge people who break the rules or "grease the wheels" to earn an unfair advantage for themselves.
• Partner with someone with a strong Maximizer or Individualization theme. This person can remind you when it is appropriate to accommodate individual differences.
• Keep your focus on performance. Occasionally, the Consistency theme might lead you to overemphasize how someone gets work done, and ignore what he or she gets done.

How to Manage a Person Especially Talented in the Consistency Theme

• When it comes time to recognize the team after the completion of a project, ask this person to pinpoint each person's contribution. She will ensure that each person receives the accolades he or she truly deserves.
• When you need to put consistent practices in place, ask her to help establish the routine ways of doing things for your organization.
• Be supportive of her during times of great change because she is most comfortable with predictable patterns that she knows work well.
• When in an analytical role, ask this person to work on group data rather than individual data. She is likely to be more adept at discovering generalizations that can be made about the group rather than particulars about a certain individual.
• If as a manager you struggle with situations where rules must be applied equally and absolutely and no favoritism must be shown, ask her to step in and deal with them. The explanations and justifications will come naturally to her.
• In those situations where it is necessary to treat diverse people equally, ask her to contribute to the development of the rules.
• She has a practical bent and thus will tend to prefer getting tasks accomplished and decisions made rather than more abstract work such as brainstorming or long-range planning.